1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a user interface technology using tactile sensation as an interface element.
2. Description of the Related Art
A technology, which is described below, is known as a user interface technology using tactile sensation as an interface element. In the technology, a pointing device, such as a track ball, a mouse, or a joystick, including a mechanism for generating a force opposing an operation of a user or a mechanism for generating vibration is used. The relationship between the position of a cursor, moved by the pointing device, and the position of a display object, such as a menu button, displayed on a display screen is monitored. When a detection is made that the positional relationship between the display object and the cursor is a predetermined relationship, the pointing device applies a predetermined tactile sensation to the user. Such a technology is disclosed in, for example, the following documents which provide related art information related to the invention of the application: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 11-305938, 8-95693, and 10-198521.
The related user interface technology, which uses tactile sensation as an interface element, has a problem in that a delayed tactile sensation is applied to the user because the time at which the tactile sensation is applied to the user lags behind the time at which the user performs an operation due to, for example, the time required to determine the positional relationship between the cursor and the display object.
In contrast, if, instead of defining the tactile sensation in terms of the relationship between the position of the display object and the cursor, the tactile sensation which is applied to the user is defined directly by an input (such as input coordinates) from the pointing device in accordance with a layout, such as a menu button layout, on a display screen, the tactile sensation which is applied to the user can be directly defined by the operation of the user. Therefore, it is possible to substantially eliminate the time lag from the time at which the user performs the operation to the time at which the tactile sensation is applied to the user, so that a current tactile sensation can be applied to the user.
However, the technique of directly defining the tactile sensation which is applied to the user at the time of a display screen layout can only be applied to the case in which the layout on the display screen is fixed. Therefore, it cannot be applied to a display screen in which a display screen layout is changed in accordance with a preceding processing result, such as a display screen in which the number of menu buttons on the display screen changes in accordance with a preceding searching result.